@Mewples are you with me or are you not?
Look, the whole "eating" thing is metaphor (clearly, I was not clear enough with that) for the fact that living requires money. I know that he needs to support his family, thank you captain obvious. When his sister grows up and get a decent job, she can support his mother with him or hell, even without him. Even so, he will still have to work to live and since his education is, for all we know, not good enough to make a living, he will have to do the hunter job, or do other labor work.
No matter how you look at it, it is a pretty depressing way of life. Forever stuck in one place without hope of ever going up, or moving somewhere else. However, thanks to the VR and the power it gives him, he won't have to live that way anymore, aren't I right?
Anw yeah, no idea why they choose to live separately, kinda dumb tbh.